


Underling Wranglin'

by ARandomRock



Series: The Daily Lives of Ghouls In Debt [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Bureaucracy, Domestic, Fighting, Gen, Mistaken Identity, Movie Spoilers, Original Unnamed Characters - Freeform, Threats of Violence, Unnamed Thugs - Freeform, light hearted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:28:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25585183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ARandomRock/pseuds/ARandomRock
Summary: The power of the Millennium Rod was vast, but it was limited by the user's own attention and dedication to control it's subjects. So when that eye was off the hoods, the Ghouls had to try organise and keep their little cult running. Between each of their different motivations, bondage and flat egos, this was often easier said than practised. This is 3 small snippets of the time when the big game hunters had to deal with their purple clocked friends.
Series: The Daily Lives of Ghouls In Debt [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1842217





	1. The Hunter Instinct.

**Author's Note:**

> These are just some small snippet ideas/things I couldn't work into a bigger story.
> 
> TW for mentions of strangulation in the first story.

Out of the upper circle, Rare Hunter classed himself as most unhinged. This was saying it very lightly though as he would often have to babysit the man who had no hinges and lost his door far gone. There was only loose screws holding the magician’s door shut too. For him, however the important thing was that owed no real direct bondage to Master Marik. He was there because he simply enjoyed the thrill of the hunt. Pandora’s sobs through the night or the Masks’ own little rituals were seen as merely distracting weaknesses to their purpose and goals. Albeit, this came with the duty to corral his own pack of ghouls, and that was the tastiest of treats.

A big duel, with the rarest and grandest cards that lower ranking duelists could only dream of seeing through the television screen. Crowds were drawn around their battle, and so as he set his own personal hounds towards his opponent, it’d allow his Ghouls to tear through the forests of prey. The ante plucked as a trophy from the deck of the defeated opponent, and another round of deck boxes and purses to search through. 

What he could not stand however, was when the crowd was gathered around someone else. That’s not to say pickpocketing and threats weren’t his level, but with newfound title and purpose, the hunter wanted to keep hunting bigger game. So when the puppet he was babysitting attracted a crowd at the park, it began to irk each of his standing up purple hairs. On some days, the crowd would gather enough that the open bag on the floor was collecting more donations than a guitarist on the domino city line.

Regardless of either of their state of mind, there was still a bond between the hunter clause. Bond was perhaps stretching it but a crowd of teenagers decided to enact their tyranny on a defenceless member of their clause, Rare Hunter could not let them run away with Pantomimer...no, his daily earnings. It was only three youths whose jackets barely matched the thickness of their robes, Rare Hunter was born from the underground. 

Running at the youths, the hunter flung out his arm and curled his elbow around the neck of the tallest youth, putting all his weight onto his target as he landed. A jab to the head before getting up, but expecting a body to him or a boot, only one of the youths appeared to go for him.

_ “That freak’s a monsta man!” _

The youth had taken a chain wrapped fist towards Rare Hunter, whose face turned into a smirk, unlocking his duel disk as a shield. The shattered pieces caused just enough of a turned head between both men that the screams behind them ceased any retaliation. There with both hands wrapped around the last youth’s throat, Pantomimer had the last youth 

_ “Boss we gotta go” _

Dragging the biggest youth up and running away with stumbles, Rare Hunter barked orders at Pantomimer to drop the delinquent and the puppet’s head turned smoothly and softly with the drop. The body went still for a second, but enough of the struggle and gasp for air afterwards gave a relief to the hunter. The puppets head turned but...there was no...funky little glowing mark on his head. In fact for one of the rare times the puppet appeared to be blinking.

_ “My new duel disk is comin’ outta your bag!” _

But Rare Hunter didn’t take the bag.

It was better to simply go.

\-----


	2. Spoilers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Curiosity killed the cat.  
> The Magician spoiled the movie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this? A Fist of the North Star and Jojo reference? In My fic? At the same time?

The Ghoul’s ranks was less of a pyramid with Marik Ishtar at the top, but more of lots of miniature groups and circles all answering up to the one call. Everyone there had heard the voice of the leader and either by debt, hunger or a promise became into bondage. While Rare Hunter was a man of well, the hunt, the next to him in terms of riches had a different type of bondage. Now the story wasn’t told so openly amongst the Ghouls, after all Battle City had an ocean and a language barrier between it and France. In fact, not even the extra hands that Marik had given to Pandora the Conjurer. Were entirely aware of the hands that throttled him. 

His part of their living quarters was the most decorated out of the upper ring. Treasures from a life past, photos in cracked frames and discarded cards across the floor. It has become a game with some of the Ghouls of who would do the delivery to Pandora. Some tasks had been given a more direct push from their Master Marik himself, when not pursuing his targets. So when an unfortunate young person from the counterfeiting operations, pulled the trap card out of the deck, sighs of relief surrounded them from the others. Understanding hands tapped their back and passed them note and the burner phone, but waving it off the Ghoul gave a two fingered salute off their hood.

The target's door in the main hideout building, was the only one not framed with light. A knuckle tapped twice, a first they had hoped for no response, yet as silence then fell around the door and they gripped the handle this positioned changed. They just had to go in, dump the burner, cards and notes off then get out. Simple as, right? This isn’t Master Marik, this wasn’t one of the more nastier thugs of the Ghouls. It’s funny the Ghoul thought, gripping the handle and turning it a click. Their reputation as a supernatural darkness that drove fear into the hearts of duelists to snatch cards was their bread and butter. Yet so many of them were scared of anyone of the upper ring and Marik’s personal puppets. Perhaps it’s because the Ghoul had seen how short Master Marik’s mercy was that a Magician with no actual magic was that scary.

With the light of the hallway illuminating the room, a flat lying man was on the sparse bed. Thin cloth blanket covering his face and encasing the pillow, on the bed side with an inccolous glass of water laid the mask. Reaching his desk, the Ghoul set down the delivery, but turned its attention to the cracked frame on the desk. Staring at i and getting lost within the pair smiling at each other on some sort of stage, the Ghoul turned back at the sleeping man who seemed to have become restless at the intrusion.

Attempting to escape, something clocked the foot of the Ghoul and a mannequin poorly propped up crashed on the floor. Panicking about left and right, the GHoul made a dash for the door, but the elder member of the Ghouls sat up in a panic and let out a vague noise, withdrawing a knife from the side of bed. The cloth that his face fluttered down and just for a second the curiosity gripped the escaping Ghoul and they saw the face. One look and a stumbled words of Marik’s orders but they just had to turned around and look again. Coughing a couple times and turning around, a tiny wretch even escaped their lips followed their y their deepest apologies. 

_ “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Shame you weren’t as quiet one. Leave.” _

The Ghoul was frozen at the Magician who had replaced the Knife down but stared at the Ghoul with charred eyes. The Ghoul kept apologising but struggled to keep even a shred of composure as they knocked other another stand on their way to the doorway.

_ “Do you think I do not know how disgusting my face is? You can’t even bear to look at me, can you?” _

Apologising profusely and making just a bit more of a mess as they slammed the door to leave, silence fell in the room. Giving a painful yawn, Pandora threw a thought that these constant interruptions when sleep were part of Marik’s plan. 

After the next day’s work was littered with rumours and talks sparked by the young Ghoul’s occurrence, even to the point that some people in the counterfeiting cards operations were saying the poor card shop owner was getting a grilling and a half. 

The lower down grunts from the counterfeiting operations were much more ecstatic about this new haul they got. For all the time they had spent bootlegging cards, getting their videotape copies was a welcome retreat, and if Master Marik surely pushed they could say these films  _ had _ to be watched to be copied. Crowded around the television, purple hoods were taken down and the rainbow coloured of hairs all settled in for the movie. The silence that fellt was bliss to them. Only the sound of sorting cards and whispered discussions from the other two non-uniformed members at the back.

This interest around the movie brought in caught the attention of the pair at the back. As the card shop clerk began to stack and seal up the case of this week’s counterfeit batch, the two striped prongs looked over to the television. Noting the same Ghoul that was responsible for last night’s events, a smirk came behind them all. Pandora cracked his knuckles and leant over the back of the couch, just waiting for his moment to strike. Approaching the television the magician bent over the tv and hit the pause button, Pointing at the old man coated in blood on the floor, he addressed the audience.

_ "I know this movie, it was released in Europe months ago. That’s the real killer there, and the key went down the drain.” _

Dead silence struck the room before the Magician cracked a laugh behind the mask and went to see the card shop owner out. The shouts that came afterwards were laden with sighs and curses as the group of purple hoods collectively sank down. 

“Spoilers man! Oh come on! Don’t ruin our night!”


	3. Defusal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An underling is caught between the Masks' arguments and accusations...

Setting up stunts to eliminate people are often hard to kill takes take, and preparation. As the tip of the screwdriver bounced off his partner’s noggin, this was explained once more. They had made accidents before in preparation for stunts and ambuses, but even if you talk to each other constantly, you’ll never know the other person’s instinctual movements. Nothing showed this more than trying to organise something as small and simple as wiring a small explosive. 

Overwatched by a colleague, with finger in his ear, the shorter Mask of Light was barking orders down, trying to describe types of screws that was needed. With an exasperated look on half his face, the other man cocked his head and leaned over the bald head. Soft drink can and finger shooting straight bullets.

“This is all a bit much, dontcha think? Just pull out a gun, like a real hunter”

The mention of a gun did make the puppet’s head stir but a quick tap on his ear kept the leaning post still. From the other side of the rooftop, sticking his head around the entrance corner, the taller Mask took out the screwdriver between his teeth.

“And yet you’d still find a way to lose.”

The other Mask, with red wire still around his finger continued with a wag:

“You’d probably get Exodia stuck in the barrel”

Tired of these people’s shenanigans,Rare Hunter threw his can off the rooftop and headed for the stairway down, but...as soon as the door closed behind him, a sudden shout came from the rooftop. Grin on his face, stuck his ear to the door and listened carefully. It appeared the Mask of Light was shouting something. It took rearranging his face and pushing as close to he could to make out what was exactly boeing said.

“No! The bigger size! A3.5, with the philips head!”

“Ugh! You guys are useless, you’ll kill us both at this rate!”

A loud clack from the side of where Rare Hunter was listening to a loud deep curse word being thrown out made him jump back from the wall.

“Yeash! Things ignitions don’t don’t wire properly. These cheat damned wire!”

“Did...PANDORA GET THESE FROM THE DAMN CIRCUS?!”

Rare Hunter had to use both hands to silence his laughter, eyes bulging at the kept in laughter. Clicks of a mobile phone, clicks of a screw driver, the angry stomping feet could almost go through the glass. The thought Pantomimer just standing there watching the tantrum made him have to hold his nose and breath from laughing too hard.

“Just get back here! BRing some extra damn writing too!

“Imaging how bad Pandora’s parachutes are gonna be!”

“Hey! We won’t lose you buffoon!”

The sounds of exasperated footsteps from down the bottom of the stairway that reached he length of the entire building made Rare Hunter stand up straight and plant his back to the door. As long as Pantomimer was on the other side he had an excuse, but the person was slow at climbing the stairs. It appeared, as they climbed up that their radio was buzzing. It looked like that one of the MAsks who had wandered away from the door, had never hung up his microphone so the continuous shouting and yelling. The bugging of Pantomimer to try coax Master Marik out of him to deal with the delivery underling. 

Pausing for a second, Rare Hunter headed halfway down the first flight of stairs, the feedback was louder, but there was still too much distance for them to shout without the two Masks hearing it. It appeared th3e frame of the person was smaller, younger. RareHunter had taken candy from a baby before, but a fox cub going on a prowl isn’t the best look. They already had enough barely lucid puppets amongst their ranks. He wasn’t as brutal as PAndora or Marik to just tip the intern over the side and end his misery, but instead offered a hand at the top of the light to the young hooded man.

“The Masks are an earache, ay?”

The man looked up terrified and went to try bow or knee but was weighed down by the bag, but Rare Hunter laughed it off. Hunters don’t need formalities in the club, only on the hunt! This didn’t calm the nerves, but taking a bag said with the most normal emotion he could probably regurgitate, that his  _ friend _ was also getting the hair dryer treatment, and the Masks would shut up when he came. 

At the top of the doorway, as it creaked open, the smaller, wider Mask of Light stormed around with a glare began a rant about the wrong, parts, only for him realis that the man he was looking at was slimmer, taller and has a chiseled face that could cut stone.

“Marik wants me to retrieve the puppet from you. Do you have a problem?”

Eyebrows jumping up and phone being dropped on the floor, the Mask of Light’s denamour changed on a dime, as he etched away. Taking the bag from his hand, Rare Hunter leaned into him just a bit more to make him shrivel before laughing and wandering off to Pantomimer. The Young rookie blinked a couple times under his purple hood before passing the bag over. The Mask fo dArkness did ruffle through the bags, His mouth opened an inch to say something but a caught clear from Rre Hunter turning his head, closed it instantly. After getting Pantomimer to move and follow with him, Rare Hunter stuck his hands on the shoulder.

“Don’t be afraid to bare your fangs, or they’ll take your prey away.”

After fixing the string the writing and getting the correct screw in of the explosive, they turned to the underling, and noticing both of them were holding different screws the two Masks’ eyes became inflated. BAcking away slowly and shutting the door, the young underlying stayed for a couple seconds to hear at the door, holding his mouth to avoid laughing.

The explosive arguments and accusations at each other. 


End file.
